In 2018, the cost of feeding a child at school for a whole year is still a snip at just £13.90. Mary's Meals is now providing school meals to well over a million children, in some of the world's poorest communities. As seen in the window of a cafe in Lilongwe, Malawi:
"If you think education is expensive - try ignorance."
WWW.MARYSMEALS.ORG.UK

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Monday, 1 October 2012

XII Japan: Shogun - Not Stirred

Shimonoseki: Driving on the Left.

There
was a chance to wash on the boat, i slept very well in the splendid cabin, and
on the morning of St Henry’s day, Wednesday 13th July, i had time to
write a few postcards before our arrival in Shimonoseki, Japan. Customs and
passport control went smoothly, after which i was struck more than anything
else by how British everything
appeared. The sky was overcast, the buildings were fairly drab and
non-descript, and perhaps most eerily of all, the European/Japanese cars were
being driven on the left. I bought a kind of baguette to have for breakfast,
and sat myself on the dockside, looking down at the waters of the Pacific, in
which one could see various smallish eels, and a funny-looking ‘sea caterpillar’
type creature with bright orange frills. There were also amphipods, sometimes called beach fleas or scuds; shrimp-like
things that, i came to realise, swarm right along the perimeter between land
and sea in that part of Japan. After breakfast i called into a cafe-bar, where
the lady gave me free cold teas, milk and biscuits (though my coffee wasn’t
cheap). I then had in mind to do some surfing - of the web, meaning a walk past
the former British consulate to a hotel, where an English-speaking receptionist
told me how to reach an internet cafe by bus. With a break for lunch, i spent an
hour or two writing ‘Pacific Details’ on the blog, and catching up with emails
etc.

I had arrived in Japan in a state of woeful
ignorance of the scale of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disaster of the
previous March, in which the island of Honshu in the north east of the country
was moved 2.4 metres east by a magnitude 9.0 (Mw) underseamegathrust
earthquake,
one of the five most powerful in the world since modern record-keeping began in
1900. Of course i’d heard reports, but somehow i assumed it couldn’t possibly
be worse than the earthquake that hit Kobe in 1995, which claimed nearly six
and a half thousand lives; yet in fact the Tōhoku quake claimed the lives of
nearly 20,000 people. Anyway, while i was in Korea, the first place i looked
for when scanning a map of Japan was Hiroshima, which i now had an opportunity
to visit, having arranged to meet my friend in Kobe on Sunday 17th. I
started walking, though i knew it would be impossible to get there without
transport in the time available. Nevertheless i covered a fair bit of ground,
turning down the prospect of staying in a budget-busting B&B, and seeing
the first geckoes of the trip. I found a place to sleep on the roof a
semi-derelict tower block, somehow confident that it wouldn’t rain.

On the morning of Thursday 14th
July, feast of St Camillus De Lellis, the weather was appreciably brighter.
Having slept quite well i got away early, and put some coins into a cold drinks
machine (ubiquitous in Japan) for my customary morning caffeine fix. A police
officer with good English gave me a friendly reprimand when i crossed the road
on a red man, soon after which i encountered my first pachinko slot machine emporium; thrown up like cheap supermarkets and
deafeningly noisy inside, where Japanese people of all ages congregate to
nourish their addiction to gambling. Then at last i cleared Shimonoseki’s
suburbs and came to an area of countryside, seeing numerous white herons, as
well as a selection of their favourite snacks; little frogs, turtles, fish and
a crayfish in the irrigation channel running alongside a paddy field. My lunch
was a pot noodle from a machine in a petrol station, by which time the weather
was seriously hot. In late afternoon i made it to Asa where, having been aware
of rather speedy-looking locomotives surging parallel to the road, i
shamelessly strode up to the train station and bought a ticket to Hiroshima. On
the way, the sight of a conurbation called Tokuyama made a strong impression,
with its futuristic dystopian morass of ageing chemical refineries, pipes and chimneys,
and the sea just beyond.

About Me

Hi, I'm James Bruce, a 41 year old chap from Bristol in England. I set off on 22 March 2013 from Blantyre, Scotland, with the aim of reaching Blantyre, Malawi, with God's help. I am raising money for Mary's Meals, the non-denominational charity that feeds children worldwide and helps them gain an education. I paid for all my expenses myself, thanks to a legacy from my late grandfather. If you would like to donate please call call 0800 698 1212 or visit www.marysmeals.org.uk.
I hope you will accompany me on this journey from wherever you are! God bless, James